1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image processing apparatuses and particularly to a technique that allows easy configuration of settings for document scanning (document reading).
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, an increasing number of multifunction peripherals (hereinafter referred to as “MFPs”) with copying, printing, scanning, facsimile (fax)/network transmission and reception capabilities have a “job combining” (or also called “build job”) feature. In the job combining, an MFP combines a plurality of image data sets, document data files, copy jobs, or the like that are stored in a storage (or also called “box”) of the MFP (hereinafter collectively referred to as “document data”) into a single document, and handles the combined document data as a single job when printing the combined document data or when sending the combined document data via fax or network (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-84941).
Job combining allows print settings (such as duplex printing and two-in-one printing) of original document data before job combining to be reflected in the entire data after job combining, or clears all settings of original data and allows the configuration of settings of combined data after job combining.
In addition to the job combining that combines a plurality of document data sets stored in a storage (or a box) of an MFP, job combining that combines document data stored in a storage with image data produced by scanning a document is becoming increasingly widespread.
However, when an MFP with a job combining feature scans a document and combines the scanned data with document data already stored in a box, it is difficult and cumbersome for the user to integrate scan settings (such as scan resolution, scan size, and format in which to save a file) for document scanning with settings of the document data that the scanned data is to be combined with.
However, if job combining is performed without integrating these settings, mixed settings in a single document data set can cause inconvenience to the user. For example, if a document saved in a box as a monochrome image by a user with a certain purpose in mind is combined with color image data, the combined document data includes a color image despite the user's original intention. If, for example, a document saved in a box at a low resolution for the purpose of reducing the file size or the like is combined with high-resolution scanned document image data, the file size of the combined document becomes larger the user originally intended. If, for example, document data saved as A4-size data is combined with image data produced by scanning an A3-size document at the same size, pages of different sizes contained in the combined document data may cause problems in printing, particularly in duplex printing and finishing.
Moreover, when digitized image data produced by scanning a document is combined with one or more document data sets originally stored in the box of the MFP and sent via a file transfer protocol, such as service message block (SMB) or file transfer protocol (FTP), or attached to an email message and sent, if a plurality of data sets are simply combined into a file, which is a single document data set, and sent, the data recipient may experience similar problems to those described above.